you and him, but " afk, and ye thall receive," &c. man lack wisdom, let him ask of God," &c. 4. Is he gone up to the throne with a shout, and with the found of a trumpet? Then let all the world, angels, men, and devils, reverence him, and do him homage; let "every knee bow unto him, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and let every tongue confefs, that his name is above every name; that he alone is the Lord, to the glory and praise of his eternal Father." Sirs, the knee that will not bow to him fhall break. They that are setting up their authority, in oppofition to his authority, his laws, and government, and oppreffing his poor people, dear will they pay for it: "he will break all his enemies as with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces as a potter's veffel." 5. See that you have a due regard to the laws and liberties of his houfe, and the interefts of his glory and kingdom. Men are trampling these under their feet at this day; but whatever others do, keep by the laws of Chrift as your rule, and "do not receive for doctrines the commandments of men. Contend earnestly for the faith delivered unto the faints; and ftand faft in the liberties wherewith Chrift hath made you free, that you be not entangled with yokes of bondage ;" and when you give a teftimony for Chrift, "hold it faft, that no man take your crown.-Be faithful unto the death," and he that is gone up with a fhout, will call you off the field of battle, and give you the crown of joy, the "crown of life and righ teoufnefs; and not to you only, but to all that love his appearing." 6. Is he gone up with a fhout? Then let us never be afha med of him before men, for he is our credit and ornament; he is not ashamed to confess us before his Father, and before his angels let us therefore have his name written on our fore heads, like thefe hundred forty and four thousand, who ftand with him upon mount Zion, Rev. xiv. 1. fo as every one may know that we belong to him, and wear his livery. 7. Laftly, Let us join in the folemnity of his exaltation, for it is not yet ended. They that shouted when he went first up to heaven from mount Olivet, are fhouting for joy to this day; and therefore let us join in the concert. When he came into Jerufalem riding upon an afs, a great company fhouted, and cried, faying, "Hofanna to the Son of David," how much more doth it become us to fhout and celebrate his praises, when, instead of riding upon an ass, he is " riding in the heavens by his great name JAH, and in his excellency on the fkies." I conclude with that exhortation, If. xii. laft verfe, ་་ Cry out and fhout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Ifrael in the midst of thee." THE WRATH OF MAN BOUNDED BY THE A SERMON PREACHED AT STIRLING, UPON THE OCCASION OF THE VIOLENT EJECTION OF THE FOUR BRETHREN FROM MINISTERIAL COMMUNION WITH THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. PSAL. lxxvi. 10.-Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath fhalt thou refrain. THE HE feventy interpreters call this pfalm a fong upon the Affyrians; which makes many good interpreters to think that it was penned upon the occafion of the defeat of Sennacherib's army by an angel, when they came up and belieged Jerufalem, in the days of Hezekiah. Others think, that it was penned upon the occafion of the victory in the days of Jehoshaphat, recorded 2 Chron. xx. 28. It is not very material which of the two; and therefore I fhall not stand to decide the controverfy. We find the church here making a threefold improvement of this glorious appearance of God in his providence on her behalf. (1.) She improves it to the honour of Ifrael's God, afcribing the whole praise and glory of it unto him, ver. 3. 7. 8. 9. "He brake the arrows of the bow," &c. (2.) To the perpetual difgrace of Ifrael's enemies, ver. 5. 6. (3) To the confolation of the true Ifrael of God in all ages, in the words read, Surely the wrath of man fball praise thee, &c. In which words we have a twofold affertion, and confirma tion of the truth of both. 1. The first affertion is, that the wrath of man fball praife God. Wrath is anger accented unto the highest pitch, or blown up into a flame. The wrath of man (in the original, it VOL. II. N n is, is, the wrath of Adam, or the wrath of clay, weak impotent man) ball praise thee; i. e. it fhall turn to the praife and glory of God, through his over-ruling providence, though quite otherwise intended. God will bring honour to himself, and ferve his own holy and wife ends and defigns out of it. What way God brings glory to himself out of the wrath and rage of man against him, his intereft and people, may be declared more fully afterward. The fecond affertion in the words is, The remainder of his wrath shalt thou reftrain. The remainder of his wrath; i. e. what is left behind of the wrath of man, when God has glorified him If thereby. Even after God has defeated the purpofes of wicked men, and made them contribute to his glory, yet there is abundance of wrath remaining; for wrath, in the latter part of the text, is in the plural number wraths; that is, great wrath, or abundance of wrath remaining. But what becomes of that wrath that is left; God fhall retrain it. The word fignifies, to gird up. However God may fee fit to flacken the bridle of his providence, and fuffer wicked men to vent their wrath and enmity, as far as it shall contribute to his glory; yet the fuperplus and remainder of his wrath, that is not for his glory, and his people's profit, God will gird it up, that they fhall not get it vented. But then, 2. We have in the words the ratification, or confirmation of the truth of thefe two affertions, in that word furely. 2 d. However the weak faith of God's people may shake and ftagger; however their hearts may be moved like the trees of the wood, when the wind and rage of man's wrath is blowing; and though unbelief may fuggeft, that the rage of man fhall turn to the difhonour of God, the hurt of his people, the ruin of his intereft; yet furely it shall be quite otherwise, for God, who cannot lie, has faid it; and therefore there is not the leaft peradventure anent the fecurity of it, that the wrath of man fhall praise him, &c. From the words thus opened, we may, OBSERVE I. That the wicked and ungodly world are filled with great wrath against the children and people of God. Such a wrath had Cain against Abel, and Haman against Mordecai. OBS. 2. That the wrath of man fhall certainly turn to the praife and glory of God. Surely the wrath of man fhall praife thee. OBS. 3. That the wrath of man, however outrageous, is bounded by God. As he fets bounds unto the raging fea, faying, " Hitherto fhalt thou come, but no further; and here fhall thy proud waves be stayed;" fo he girds up the remainder of man's man's wrath, that it fhall not go one inch beyond the bounds that he has appointed to it. I do not defign to confine myself at prefent to any of these propofitions, but fhall endeavour to difcourfe the words of the text in the following order and method. I. I would speak a little of the wrath of man. II. How it is that the wrath of man doth praife God, and why God will have it fo. III. Prove, that God reftrains the remainder of man's wrath, and how he does it. IV. Make fome improvement of the whole. 1. Shew what I. The first thing is, to speak a little of the wrath of man, And here I fhall endeavour to do two things. the wrath of man imports. 2. Why man hath fuch wrath against God and his people. First, What the wrath of man doth import? Anfu. 1. It imports the wickedness of man's nature, and its enmity against God; for wrath against God, against his laws, against his intereft or people, is juft the fruit and product of depraved nature, Hence it is, that the "Heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing; they break his bands, and caft away his cords from them," saying with Pharaoh," Who is the Lord that we should obey him?" 2. This expreffion, the wrath of man, imports the weakness and impotence of it; it is but the wrath of Adam, or of red clay, as I noticed in the explication. How contemptibly doth the Spirit of God fpeak of man, and of the power of man, in fcripture?" Ceafe ye from man, whofe breath is in his noftrils for wherein is he to be accounted of?" The wrath of man, when it is lengthened out to its utmost boundaries, can only go the length of killing the body, or of breaking the fheath of clay in which the foul lodges, and then it can do no more, 3. It imports the rashness and precipitancy of it; for a man in wrath he is juft hurried with pride and paffion, without regard either to the principles of reafon or religion. Hence it is, that men in wrath or rage, they are hurried into fuch acts and inconveniences, as caufes fmart and torment when they come to cool blood. 4. It implies the fiercenefs of it. With what eagerness of fpirit do men in wrath profecute their defigns? How furious was Efau in perfecuting his brother Jacob? With what fury did Nebuchadnezzar purfue his refentment against the three children, who refused to bow down to his idol-god? 5. It implies the illegality and arbitrarinefs of it. A man in wrath has no regard either to the laws of God or man, being fully under the law of his own lufts; fuch as, malice, revenge, pride, and the like corruption. Secondly, I come to inquire, whence is it that wicked men. have fo great wrath against God, his people, and interest ? Anfw. 1. This flows from the power of Satan in and over them; for he rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience Rev. xii. 12. "Wo to the inhabitants of the earth, and of the fea: for the devil is come down unto you in great wrath, because he knoweth that his time is fhort." The devil is filled with rage against the church of Chrift, compared there unto a woman clothed with the fun, and the moon under her feet." And how is it that the devil vents his rage against the church, but by fetting wicked men under his government a-work to perfecute and opprefs her? Hence when the wicked cafts God's people into prifon, it is faid to be done by the devil: Rev. ii. "The devil shall caft fome of you into prifon; and ye fhall have tribulation ten days." And they cannot but run faft whom the devil drives. 2. This flows from the power of natural enmity against God and his intereft, which is nothing else but the poifon and venom of the devil's malice infused into the fouls of wicked men; and when the devil has any ill turn to do in the world, he has no more ado, but to fay to this, or the other luft of the heart, Go, and it goes; and to another, Come, and it cometh. The wheel of corrupt nature just rolls as the devil would have it. 3. They are filled with wrath against the people of God, because their own works are evil, and the works of the other good. This was the reason why Cain flew his brother Abel, 1 John iii. 12. 4. Becaufe God's people feek the good of the church of Christ upon earth, but the wicked feek to destroy it. The one prays for the peace of Jerufalem, and takes pleasure in her ftones and rubbish; whereas the wicked feek to ruin it; they cry," Rafe, rafe Jerufalem to the foundation:" and therefore they cannot but be filled with rage against those that crofs their measures. This much for the first thing in 'the method. II. The fecond thing was, to inquire how is it that the wrath of man doth praise God? I premife, that God is praifed among men two ways, either in an active, or in a paffive way. 1. Actively, by faints and angels in the church militant and triumphant, where praise waiteth |